


I am cold

by Walk_it_off45



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Gen, How Do I Tag, Mild Hurt/Comfort, NOT STARKER - Freeform, No Plot/Plotless, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-09 18:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19892416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walk_it_off45/pseuds/Walk_it_off45
Summary: "Hey, Mister Stark? Can you come pick me up?"-Peter finds himself lost in a subway tunnel, Tony comes to his rescue, fluff ensues.-There is absolutely no context for this, it's just a very short, fluffy, drabble.





	1. Part One

"Hey, Mister Stark? Can you come pick me up?"

  
Midnight in an abandoned subway tunnel was a lot creepier than midnight anywhere else. There were more weird shadows, strange noises, and rats. Can't forget the rats.

  
It only helped a little that Peter could see most of his immediate surroundings with the flashlight on his phone. Graffiti on the concrete walls, broken glass and other trash: signs of life in an otherwise lifeless corner of New York. He had spent the past hour stuck in here, walking along the tracks, trying to find either an exit or a cell signal, whichever came first. Good news: he found enough reception to make a call. Bad news: he was still lost, alone, and unbelievably cold.

  
"Yeah, where are you?" Tony asked over the phone, even though he didn't need to. He was probably pulling up the location from the gps tracker in Peter's phone. Or watch. Or shoe. The man had put trackers in so many of Peter's belongings, he could never hope to lose anything again. Some would call it paranoid. Peter had, at first. But after tonight? He would never complain again.

  
"I'm not really sure," he said. "I'm underground. In a subway tunnel. But I don't know where it's at, or how I even got here, really."

  
"What?" Background noises indicated that armor was forming around him. "Okay, don't panic."

  
"Are you talking to me or yourself?"

  
"You, of course."

  
"Sure, we'll go with that." Peter tried to laugh, but it turned into a violent shiver. It was so cold down here. Much colder than above ground, and it was snowing up there.

  
"I'm cold," Peter said. If only he had his suit. Tony had been smart to put a heater in it. Peter wondered just how he thought of that.

  
"I'll be there soon, just hang tight. I'm about twenty minutes out."

  
"Twenty minutes?" How far from home was he?

  
"I know, but we need to stay calm, yeah? Time will go a lot faster if we talk, so how about explaining what happened?"

  
"I was on my way to see you, actually."

  
Tony waited a moment for Peter to elaborate, and when he didn't, he asked:

  
"About what?"

  
"Well, this is probably a bad time, right?" He shivered again. "It's not that important, and it doesn't really have anything to do with me ending up here, anyway."

  
"Finish giving me the basics, but we will be circling back to this." Tony said firmly.

  
"Okay, uh, well I was at the subway so I could come see you, and I got on the train, but I was all alone. It was so weird, but kind of cool too, you know? I've never had an entire car all to myself before-"

  
"Focus, kid."

  
"Right, sorry. So, I thought it was cool, and then I got bored so I put on my headphones to listen to some music, and I must have fallen asleep."

  
"What have I told you about falling asleep alone on the subway?" Tony's voice rose sharply, and with it, Peter's anxiety.

  
"I know! I'm sorry, it was an accident."

  
"It's okay," Tony said, much more gently this time. "It's okay. Just finish the story."

  
"I woke up because the train had stopped, somehow the car I was in got separated from the rest. I pulled the doors open and got out and walked, but I haven't come to a station yet. I can't even hear anything nearby. It's been about an hour since I woke up."

  
"Okay," Tony was clearly trying to not freak out while on the phone with him, his voice was tense and his words clipped. "I'm only ten minutes out now, I'm almost there. Just stay calm, alright?"

  
"Not to be blunt, but it sounds like you're the one who needs help staying calm." Peter said, trying not to let his teeth chatter. It felt like the cold was seeping into his bones. He rubbed his arms and pulled his jacket tighter around him, but it didn't help.

  
"Well, you might have trouble being calm too, if you found out that your kid was on the same train as a _bomb_."

  
"Wait, what?!"

  
"A train was hijacked earlier, in your area. They separated all the cars except one and planned to stop it wherever they could do the most damage to the city above with their homemade bomb. They were caught, thankfully. I can only assume that it was the train you were on."

Tony tried to sound casual as ever, telling this story. But Peter could hear the strained undertones in his voice. He knew better.

  
"Woah, that's freaky. But, hey, at least nothing happened."

  
Tony laughed uneasily. "Yeah, easy for you to say."

  
"So why haven't I come to another train car yet? I've been walking for a long time."

  
"They must have really spread them out, they were found more than forty miles away from where you are."

  
"Huh."

  
He wanted to keep talking, but suddenly his body gave up fighting the cold. His body shook, his breath came in icy gasps, and his hands were numb. He couldn't hold onto his phone anymore. It slipped from his grasp and made a sickening crack as it hit the concrete, and everything went dark.

  
Peter crouched, feeling around the ground for it. He had no idea if he had cut his fingers on broken glass or not, when he finally found it. He fumbled around with it in the dark, hoping against hope that the impact had simply dislodged the battery, but no. It was busted.

  
Now he could see nothing. Hear nothing but his own heart and quickening breaths. And he was so. _cold_.

  
He leaned back until he found the wall, and slid down it until he could sit. The grit and grime on the ground scraped as he curled in on himself. Peter blamed the spider bite's effects on his system for his body's abismal thermoregulation, he was now particularly sensitive to cold. That's why he lived in hoodies and sweaters. He tried not to complain about it to May, because running the heat up also ran up the electricity bill. But with Tony, he couldn't hide it. The man did not miss anything.

  
"Just ask F.R.I.D.A.Y. to turn the heat up, don't worry about it." He constantly insisted.

  
The truth was, Peter liked that Tony always kept hoodies and sweatshirts in the lab for him. So he never asked the friendly A.I. to change the temperature settings. He preferred instead to layer on hoodies with the Stark Industries logo emblazoned across the chest that he knew must have been taken directly from Tony's own closet because their scent matched his cologne. They made him feel safe, and they smelled like home.  
Now, he just wished that he was feeling a slight chill while working in the lab.

Peter couldn't stop the shivers anymore. They wracked his body, and he wished he could stop breathing if only to keep the frozen air out of his lungs.

  
Tony's coming. He's almost here. Hold on, just a little longer.

  
He repeated it to himself like a mantra. It was all he could hold onto.

  
Soon, he could no longer tell if his eyes were open or closed, the darkness was so thick and unending. If it had been five minutes or five hours since he lost contact with Tony. If he had ever actually known warmth, a life outside of this tunnel of nothingness, or if he had just dreamed it. He couldn't even tell if that light he thought he was seeing was real or not.

  
"Peter!"

  
Hands touched his face, warm hands.

  
"Peter, can you look at me?"

  
"Mister Stark?" The words scarcely felt real on his lips.

  
"C'mon, kiddo, let's get you out of here."

  
Tony hauled him up from the ground and helped him toward the suit he had just sprinted out of, which was also providing illumination for their surrounding area. Peter felt the armor close around him, and the sweet relief of the heater turning on. The warmth easing under his skin was all that he was aware of from then until the suit opened up at the compound. Had the flight really been that quick, Peter wondered vaguely, or was he so out of it that he missed the whole thing?

  
All he knew was that without the heating from the suit, he was again very very cold. But it did not last long.

  
Tony wrapped a blanket around Peter's shoulders, and Peter vaguely wondered if the man had taken a second suit for himself, and if not, how exactly had he flown home? He then asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run a scan of Peter's vitals. When the A.I.'s results showed that he was fine, Tony relaxed a little.

  
He grabbed up another blanket from the stack he kept in the lab and put that one around him too, although he was no longer shivering.

  
"I'm fine now, Mister Stark." Peter said. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. said so."

  
"What happened?" Tony asked, ignoring Peter's insistence. "Why did you drop the call?"

  
"I dropped my phone," he pulled it out of his pocket as proof. "My hands were numb and I couldn't hold onto it. I guess I'll have to get a new one again."

  
"I'll take care of it, don't worry about that. What happened to your hands?"

  
Peter looked down at his hands and was surprised to find them covered with tiny scratches and cuts. Then he remembered feeling around the ground for his phone.

  
"I couldn't see when I was looking for my phone,"

  
"Right, let's get you cleaned up, okay?"

Peter sat on a nearby stool while Tony stood in front of him, tending to his injuries. The blankets were helping warm him up, and the heater was blasting, making the lab feel more like a furnace. Not that he minded in the slightest. Tony didn't seem to mind either.

  
Taking care of Peter's hands seemed to ease the tension out of his shoulders, jaw, and neck, but his hands still shook ever so slightly.

  
Tony's hands constantly intrigued Peter. The same hands that forged metal and were calloused and tough from work were the same hands that were nimble and precise enough to do detail work with wires and tiny components. And now, they were gentle and soft as Tony cleaned the wounds on Peter's hands and bandaged them.

  
"So, you want to tell me why it was that you were coming to see me?" He asked without looking up.

  
"It's stupid."

  
"Maybe, but I'd like to know what it was that got you into this mess."

  
Peter chewed at his lip, focusing still on Tony's hands and not his face.

  
"May and I got into a fight."

  
Tony's hands stilled.

  
"How did that happen?"

  
"I don't really know, she usually never gets angry. We've never fought like that. I don't know if I did something, or said something wrong, but I came home from school and the next thing I know she's raising her voice." Peter sighed. "I thought it would be best to give her some space, time to cool off, and Ned's family is out of town, so I was coming to see you. I think… I think something is wrong with her boyfriend."

  
"Is she still seeing Brian?" Tony resumed attending to Peter's hands. "I thought they were doing great."

  
"Yeah, and me too. He seems really nice. She's been really happy with him, but lately she's been acting weird. I don't know, maybe it's nothing."

  
"Could be," Tony said simply. "but sometimes even when something is wrong, some people don't ask for help."

  
"Why not?" Peter jerked his hands out of agitation, forgetting briefly what Tony was doing.

  
"Because, they might think it makes them weak. Or they might be afraid. I'll check in with May, maybe it's something she doesn't want to worry you with."

  
"Well, she's worrying me anyway." Peter grumbled.

  
"I know, kiddo. You check in with her too. Talk, ask her what's up. Just keep an eye on her. If something feels weird, don't be afraid to do something about it."

"Did you tell May you were coming over?" He asked suddenly, after the last bandage was applied, and they took the stairs up to the kitchen. Peter hadn't eaten in several hours, and he was beginning to feel the effects.

  
"Yeah, she knew."

  
"Good. Didn't want to be unknowingly harboring a fugitive."

  
They ate, Peter changed out of his grimy clothes into some pajamas that he kept here for when he stayed over, and came back out of his room to find Tony sitting on the couch queuing up a movie.

  
"You're starting a movie? This late?"

  
"Shouldn't I be the one complaining about that, not you?" Tony teased.

  
"I'm not complaining, just confused." Peter sat down on the couch, grabbing up his blankets again.

  
"We've both had an eventful night, kid. I think a little time to unwind wouldn't hurt."

  
He didn't disagree. Even though it was late, he wasn't even sleepy. And, though he tried not to let Tony see, he was still chilled at his core.

  
As the opening crawl of his favorite star wars movie began to play, Peter shivered again. Not as violently as before, but enough for Tony to notice.

  
He didn't say anything, just shifted closer and helped Peter wrap up in the blankets, and then tucked him securely against his body with one arm holding him close.

  
"You okay?" He asked, voice soft.

  
"Just cold."

  
"I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner."

  
"You found me, though. That's all that matters."

  
Tony let out a quiet laugh.

  
"You're too good, kid. Don't change."

  
"Okay. As long as you keep me warm."

  
Tony ran a hand through Peter's hair, and he felt the last bit of tension leave Tony's body.

  
"Sure thing."


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony promised to keep Peter warm, and he doesn't break promises.

Physically? Tony was in a meeting. Mentally? He was back at home on his couch, movie playing in the background, with a sleeping Peter Parker in his arms.

Pepper said this meeting was important, and to his credit he really had tried to pay attention at first. But after the adrenaline rush of rescuing Peter and the subsequent relief of finding him and getting him back to warmth and safety, could you blame him for being preoccupied?

His mind was on a constant loop of the previous night. Lingering most often on the part during the movie when Peter fell asleep, his weight gradually increasing against the side of Tony's body until finally the last bits of chill left him and he stopped shuddering with cold, falling into a peaceful sleep.

He didn't wake until F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed them that if Peter did not get up soon, he would be late for school. But if we're going to be real, Tony wished that they could have stayed like that for much longer.

Pepper, who was sitting next to him, gave his shin a kick under the table, jolting him out of his head. She looked at him sharply, nodding her head toward the man currently in possession of everyone else's attention. Some C.E.O. of some company, nobody consequential to him. The only reason he was even there was because Pepper had asked him to come with her. But even as he directed his gaze back to the front of the room, his mind remained focused on his current most pressing concern: Peter was worried about his aunt.

Tony slipped his phone out of his pocket, sending a quick text to May.

"Wanted to check in, Peter told me what happened last night."

She replied a few moments later.

"Sorry you had an unexpected guest overnight, but thanks for letting him stay."

"He's never a problem. He was worried, though. About you."

"I had a rough day, it was nothing. I'm sure we'll talk about it when he gets home from school."

This was the part where Tony felt conflicted. He knew May well enough to sense that she wasn't telling the whole truth, but he also knew better than to pry. But she said she would talk to Peter, which was the point. So he left it at that, and resumed giving half of his attention to the boring meeting.

-

Every other weekend was devoted to spending time with Peter. It had been routine for a while now, long enough that it felt like it had always been that way. Friday nights were spent in the lab, Saturday mornings were for making waffles, and Sundays were for movie marathons.

That's just the way life was meant to be.

So when Happy brought Peter over after school let out, Tony expected the usually bubbly excitement of Peter sharing details about his week and what he wanted to work on in the lab. But that's not at all what he got.

Peter was oddly quiet, not cracking jokes and barely smiling. To look at his face, you would think he was carrying a ten tonne weight. Which, Tony realized, he could probably do, no sweat.

"Okay, what's eating at you, kiddo?" He finally asked after over an hour of awkwardly trying to act like he didn't know something was wrong.

"Huh? I'm fine, Mister Stark, really." Peter didn't look up from his web-shooters, which he was attempting to upgrade, but actually had simply been fidgeting with the whole time.

"Yeah, no. I can tell something is up." Tony put down his own project and left his desk, striding over to Peter's. He sat on the edge of the desk facing Peter, who hesitantly raised his gaze to meet Tony's and sighed, an indication that he was about to let it all spill out.

"May talked to me yesterday, she told me what's been bothering her."

"Okay, and?"

"Brian broke up with her."

"Oh," Surprise colored his features. That was not what he had been expecting. "well you'll have to give her my condolences-"

"He broke up with her because of me."

Ah, so that was it.

"What do you mean, because of you?" He asked, giving Peter a quizzical look.

"He told her that he didn't want to be in a relationship with a child involved, that he wasn't ready for that. She was just upset because he should have told her sooner, instead of leading her on for months when he knew they wouldn't go anywhere."

"She's right, of course she deserves better than that. I still don't see how this is your fault, though."

"Are you kidding me?" Peter looked at him incredulously. "If I weren't in the picture, May would still have her boyfriend, who she really loved. And I liked him too, I was actually really excited about the idea of having him around, which hasn't happened with any of her other boyfriends."

"That doesn't mean it was about you personally, Pete." Tony said it like it was obvious, but Peter's expression gave away that he still was not convinced. "It was the principle of coming into an established family unit, it's an overwhelming thing."

"Yeah, I guess."

A beat of silence passed, and Tony moved to go back to his own desk, give Peter the space to sort out his thoughts. But the kid in question spoke suddenly, halting him.

"She wanted to marry him, though." He said, staring down at his hands, which pulled at a loose string on the hoodie he was wearing. Tony's hoodie.

After rescuing Peter from the cold and having to face the ordeal of warming him back up, Tony never wanted to see him shiver again. Since he couldn't control the weather, he took action where he did have control. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was now programmed to raise the temperature whenever Peter entered a room, no matter where he went there was always a blanket within reach, and thicker hoodies had been added to the stack he kept in the lab.

One of Tony's MIT hoodies now engulfed Peter, who didn't quite fill it out yet. He had the sleeves rolled up so he could work, and was careful not to get it dirty. Not that Tony would care if he did. It comforted him to see his kid bundled up and comfortable, not freezing to death in a dark tunnel that reminded him too much of a cave in Afghanistan.

Peter looked anything but comfortable now, though. Troubled was a more apt description.

"After their four-month anniversary, she sat me down and we had a long talk." He continued. "She wanted to know what I really thought about him, and she told me that she really, really liked him. She could see them getting married, maybe."

"And how did you feel about that?" Tony asked carefully.

"I was okay with it," he sounded surprised, even though the words came from his own mouth. "I used to get really upset about the idea of May with someone other than Ben. Because I felt like if I let myself like him, and accept him in my life like that, I was replacing Ben. He was like my dad, and he did dad-things with me, you know? He filled that spot. And with him gone, it's like that spot has been empty."

  
Peter rarely talked to Tony about his uncle. When he did, Tony took the information as something vitally important, a tiny piece of Peter's heart that he was now privileged to possess. This piece was slightly bigger than the others, though. Because he knew personally what that felt like.

Jarvis, the man, not the A. I., had been more of a father to Tony than Howard ever was, and his loss left an empty space in Tony's world.  
It took a surprising amount of time for Tony to become aware of what he was really doing when he threw himself into a life of parties, alcohol, and women: he was really trying to fill the emptiness with something, anything. Now, of course, he had better things to fill it with.

Pepper, the Avengers (or what's left of them), and more recently, Peter.

But a part of that space just stayed empty; there was nothing that could fill it. Not when the piece that was supposed to be there could never be put back. It hurt to know that Peter would no doubt feel that too, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"And you were afraid of letting someone else fill that spot." Tony said, casting his gaze to the floor.

Peter gave a sheepish nod.

"But, when May was with Brian, it was different. He's the first boyfriend she's been really serious about since I met you."

Tony furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I'm not sure I follow, kid."

Peter's face flushed pink.

"I just mean- it's like all of my friends have their dads teaching them to drive, or coming to see their project at the science fair, stuff like that. Those little things that are actually huge? And I missed having that for a long time, but I was afraid to let somebody May was dating do those things with me. But then we met, and ever since you offered to make me an Avenger-"

"And you turned me down," Tony said, with a fond grin. But Peter was not distracted.

"When you started working with me and teaching me things, and letting me help in the lab, and just hanging out with me, I wasn't afraid of someone trying to take that spot anymore. Actually, it kind of feels like it isn't all that empty now."

Peter's words hung in the air for several seconds, the weight of them and their meaning hitting Tony squarely in the chest.

"I guess I was okay with May marrying Brian because I didn't feel pressured to accept him as like, a dad-figure, you know?" Peter went on as if nothing was happening, as if his words were not causing Tony to mentally malfunction at the very concept of himself being seen as a father figure. "I didn't even realize that I didn't feel like something was missing anymore, isn't that weird?"

"Yeah," Tony mumbled. "So, I'm a little confused, let's back up a bit."

Peter gazed up at him so innocently, patiently waiting for him to speak, oblivious to what exactly he was implying. He didn't even know what he was saying, he probably didn't mean it that way. So why did it _hurt_ so much?

Because he wanted it to be true. Though every logical part of his mind was telling him it was impossible that Peter actually felt that way, something clung to the small bit of _maybe_ that said it was possible.

"You weren't afraid anymore because, why?" He asked tentatively.

"Well, because I have you now. I never expected you to come into my life, but you did and you've made it so much better. I just don't feel like I'm missing out so much, I guess, because you let me come do stuff with you. I don't know, maybe it sounds stupid-"

"It's not stupid." Tony breathlessly, surprise and excitement and _what on earth am I supposed to do now_ coursing through his chest.

Peter stopped pulling at the strings of Tony's hoodie and went back to his web-shooters, focusing a little better on them now.

"Anyway," he said. "I know I should be more upset with Brian for all of this, but I hate seeing what it's doing to May, and there's nothing I can do to fix it, and that makes me mad at myself."

"Huh?" Tony gaped, still stunned. "Well, no we can't fix it, but we can try to make it a little easier. We could get her flowers, for one. Does she like flowers?"

"Yeah, gerbera daisies are her favorite."

"We can pick some up before I bring you home."

Tony stood awkwardly beside Peter's desk, putting his hands into the pockets of his jeans and then pulling them right back out, several times over. He wanted to say something, to let Peter know how much what he said meant to him, but nothing he could think of seemed right.

"I could teach you to drive." He blurted out before he could even register the words himself. "I mean, I'm sure May is already teaching you, or not. It doesn't matter, who needs to drive in the city anyway?"

Peter looked up at him, something like hope lighting up his features.

"You'd teach me to drive?" He asked.

"Well, yeah. If you want to learn." Tony stuttered.

"You'd be okay with that?"

" _Yes_ , kid. Of course I would."

Something settled over the both of them, then. Mutual understanding, maybe.

Peter broke out into a wild grin, and Tony got that weird soft feeling all over again, and they fell right back into rhythm.

"I'd like that," Peter said. "But only if you let me drive the Ferrari."

"Do I look like an idiot?" Tony sputtered, reaching out to ruffle Peter's hair. "I'm not risking Marilyn's life just so you can learn to drive."

"You named your car Marilyn?"

"Of course I did, I name everything."

"Yeah, but Marilyn?"

"It's a beautiful name, don't laugh."

"I'd never laugh at you, Mister Stark."

"Sure you wouldn't, kid."

They spent another hour in the lab before taking a break for dinner. They had pizza and placed bets on who would be able to eat more. Of course Peter won, as Tony knew he would. He jumped up and down in triumph after Tony conceded defeat, mouth full and cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk, and Tony just looked on with fondness in his eyes.

" _Now I have you_." Peter had said.

Yes, Peter had Tony in the palm of his hand, there was nothing he would not do to keep him safe and happy.

"Hey, Mister Stark," Peter said once his mouth was empty. "Do you think we could test out the new upgrades on my web-shooters outside? I need somewhere open to swing."

"It's way too cold outside, Pete. You'd turn into a popsicle."

"It would only take a few minutes, I wouldn't get too cold that quickly."

Tony shook his head.

"I promised I'd keep you warm, kiddo, and I don't break promises. Maybe tomorrow it will warm up a little, we can try then."

"What if I wear my suit and use the heater?" Peter pleaded.

Tony considered it, eyeing Peter carefully while picking up one more slice of pizza.

"Fine," he conceded, and Peter began jumping up and down again in celebration. "Ten minutes, no longer. And after you're done I'm turning you into a burrito with blankets."

Peter sprinted off to change into his suit, not waiting for Tony to change his mind.

  
Tony just laughed to himself, thinking about how much he would do for Peter.

He would listen when he was worried about Aunt May, and then take him to get flowers for her.

He would teach him how to drive a car, and then how to fix one.

And he would keep him warm, always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's part two! Thank you so much for commenting and leaving kudos on the first part, I never expected it to receive so much attention. I appreciate your kind words so much. Let me know what you think of the conclusion!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever posted on ao3, how did I do? Let me know! Any advice is appreciated.  
> I left it open for a part two if anyone is interested, let me know about that as well!


End file.
